University of Mississippi eGrove Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors Theses Honors College) 2015 Do You See what I See? How a Dark Triad Personality Affects Perceptions of Dark Triad Characters in Film and Television Timothy Davis University of Mississippi. Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Davis, Timothy, "Do You See what I See? How a Dark Triad Personality Affects Perceptions of Dark Triad Characters in Film and Television" (2015). Honors Theses. 918. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/918 This Undergraduate Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College) at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? HOW A DARK TRIAD PERSONALITY AFFECTS PERCEPTIONS OF DARK TRIAD CHARACTERS IN FILM AND TELEVISION by Timothy Davis A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Mississippi in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Oxford May 2015 Approved by ___________________________________ Advisor: Dr. Carrie V. Smith ___________________________________ Reader: Dr. Elicia Lair __________________________________ Reader: Dr. Michael T. Allen ©2015 Timothy Davis ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Carrie V. Smith for her guidance and assistance over the past year. I would also like to thank Grace Snyder, Brooke Holloway, Kelene Spears, and Robert Williams for their valuable assistance and input. iii ABSTRACT TIMOTHY DAVIS: Do You See What I See? How a Dark Triad Personality Affects Perceptions of Dark Triad Characters in Film and Television. (Under the direction of Dr. Carrie V. Smith) The Dark Triad is composed of three related subclinical personality traits: narcissism (excessive self-love, need for attention), psychopathy (cold, remorseless), and Machiavellianism (manipulative, cynical). The present study uses Dark Triad film/television characters to examine how Dark Triad people view others like them. It was hypothesized that (1) participants higher in the Dark Triad are more interested in films/television shows with Dark Triad characters, (2) participants higher in the Dark Triad have a more positive reaction to Dark Triad characters, and (3) Dark Triad participants see themselves in Dark Triad characters. Gender differences in Dark Triad character evaluations were also examined. Participants were shown trailers for films/television shows, most of which featured a Dark Triad character, and asked questions about the films/shows and specific characters. Participants were given a questionnaire that assessed their Dark Triad characteristics. Results showed no significant relationship between Dark Triad scores and interest in films/shows with Dark Triad leads. However, participants higher in the Dark Triad viewed Dark Triad characters more positively than others. Also, Dark Triad participants saw themselves in Dark Triad characters. It was found that the ability of Dark Triad participants to see themselves in these characters mediated the relationship between participants’ Dark Triad scores and their reactions to Dark Triad characters. In conclusion, Dark Triad characters iv are generally disliked, but this does not affect liking of films/shows featuring them. However, people higher in the Dark Triad do like these characters more than others, likely because they see the characters as similar to themselves. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………..…….iv INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………..……….3 BEGINNING OF DARK TRIAD……………………………………………...…4 PERCEPTIONS OF DARK TRIAD PEOPLE…………………………………...5 DARK TRIAD IN POPULAR CULTURE……………………………………….6 PRESENT RESEARCH……………………………………...…………………...7 HYPOTHESES……………………………………………………………………8 METHOD…………………………………………………………………………………8 PILOT STUDY……………………………………………………………………8 PARTICIPANTS………………………………………………………….8 MATERIALS……………………………………………………………...8 PROCEDURE…………………………………………..………………..10 PRESENT STUDY…………………………………………………………...….11 PARTICIPANTS……………………………………………………...…11 MATERIALS………………………………………………………….....11 PROCEDURE……………………………………………………...…….13 RESULTS………………………………………………………………………………..13 DISCUSSION……………………………………………………………………………16 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………...……...20 TABLE 1…………………………………………………………………………………22 TABLE 2…………………………………………………………………………………23 TABLE 3…………………………………………………………………………………24 vi FIGURE 1………………………………………..………………………………………25 APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………………26 vii Running head: DARK TRIAD AND FILM CHARACTER PERCEPTIONS 1 Do You See what I See? How a Dark Triad Personality Affects Perceptions of Dark Triad Characters in Film and Television Timothy Davis University of Mississippi Author’s Notes I would like to thank Dr. Carrie V. Smith for her advising of this study. I would also like to thank Grace Snyder, Brooke Holloway, Kelene Spears, and Robert Williams for their assistance. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Timothy Davis, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38655. Email: [email protected] DARK TRIAD AND FILM CHARACTER PERCEPTIONS 2 Abstract The Dark Triad is composed of three related subclinical personality traits: narcissism (excessive self-love, need for attention), psychopathy (cold, remorseless), and Machiavellianism (manipulative, cynical). The present study uses Dark Triad film/television characters to examine how Dark Triad people view others like them. It was hypothesized that (1) participants higher in the Dark Triad are more interested in films/television shows with Dark Triad characters, (2) participants higher in the Dark Triad have a more positive reaction to Dark Triad characters, and (3) Dark Triad participants see themselves in Dark Triad characters. Gender differences in Dark Triad character evaluations were also examined. Participants were shown trailers for films/television shows, most of which featured a Dark Triad character, and asked questions about the films/shows and specific characters. Participants were given a questionnaire that assessed their Dark Triad characteristics. Results showed no significant relationship between Dark Triad scores and interest in films/shows with Dark Triad leads. However, participants higher in the Dark Triad viewed Dark Triad characters more positively than others. Also, Dark Triad participants saw themselves in Dark Triad characters. It was found that the ability of Dark Triad participants to see themselves in these characters mediated the relationship between participants’ Dark Triad scores and their reactions to Dark Triad characters. In conclusion, Dark Triad characters are generally disliked, but this does not affect liking of films/shows featuring them. However, people higher in the Dark Triad do like these characters more than others, likely because they see the characters as similar to themselves. DARK TRIAD AND FILM CHARACTER PERCEPTIONS 3 Do You See What I See? How a Dark Triad Personality Affects Perceptions of Dark Triad Characters in Film and Television The Dark Triad is a set of three related subclinical personality traits. These traits are narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Though the relationship between narcissism and psychopathy has been studied in clinical psychology for some time, the development of subclinical measures of narcissism and psychopathy allowed for examination of the similarities among all three of these traits (Paulhus, Williams, & Harms, 2001). Machiavellianism was included because of positive associations previously found with psychopathy (McHoskey, Worzel, & Szyarto, 1998) and narcissism (McHoskey, 1995). People high in narcissism possess a need for admiration, excessive self-love and self-admiration, a sense of entitlement, a sense of superiority, and an excessive desire for attention (Jonason, Webster, Schmitt, Li, & Crysel, 2012; Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Subclinical psychopathy is characterized by thrill-seeking, high impulsivity, coldness, and a lack of remorse and conscience. (Hare, 1993; Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Machiavellians tend to be manipulative, cynical, and strategic (Paulhus & Williams, 2002; Rauthmann & Kolar, 2012). The subclinical nature of the Dark Triad, as well as its consistence of three unique traits, makes it difficult to determine the frequency of Dark Triad people in the general population. The best explanation that has been offered to date is that at least one Dark Triad person can be found in any large group of people (Furnham, Richards, & Paulhus, 2013). DARK TRIAD AND FILM CHARACTER PERCEPTIONS 4 Beginning of Dark Triad The idea of a common link amongst these three traits emerged with the observation that all three consist of a socially destructive character, emotional coldness, heightened aggression, and acts of self-promotion (Paulhus et al., 2001; Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Also, studies prior to the conception of the Dark Triad showed relationships between Machiavellianism and psychopathy (Fehr, Samson, & Paulhus, 1992; McHoskey et al.,1998), narcissism and psychopathy (Gustafson & Ritzer, 1995), and Machiavellianism and narcissism (McHoskey, 1995). Paulhus and Williams (2002) conducted an early investigation of the relationship among the three traits. Participants were given anonymous questionnaires including individual self-report measures for each of the traits of the